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This New West resident will serve on the National Advisory Council on Poverty

Shawn Bayes, longtime executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Greater Vancouver, is one of 10 people selected to help steer the federal government's work on poverty reduction
Shawn Bayes, Elizabeth Fry
Shawn Bayes, executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society of the Lower Mainland, chats with a mother and child who are clients from EFry's Transitions to New Beginnings program, which supports new mothers and babies awaiting safe, affordable housing.

Shawn Bayes is taking her fight against poverty to the national stage.

Bayes, a New West resident, is one of 10 people selected from more than 800 candidates to serve on the federal government’s new National Advisory Council on Poverty.

Bayes is the executive director of the Elizabeth Fry Society of Greater Vancouver, a charitable organization that supports women, girls and children who are at risk, involved in or affected by the justice system. Its programs strive to break the cycle of poverty, addiction, mental illness, homelessness and crime.

Bayes has worked with the organization for 34 years and has been its executive director for 22 of those.

Through that work, Bayes has seen the impacts of poverty firsthand. She’s also seen some of the obstacles that contribute to poverty.

“I felt it was important to raise and speak to those issues of what was marginalizing and impoverishing women, how it was affecting children, how deep poverty is and how difficult it is for families to move out of poverty,” she said. “It is a real complex problem.”

The National Advisory Council on Poverty’s mandate is to provide independent advice to the Minister of Families, Children and Social Development on poverty reduction. It will also report annually on the progress achieved toward reducing the level of poverty by 20 per cent by 2020 and by 50 per cent by 2030 (compared to the 2015 level).

“Canada committed, I think in 2000, to erasing child poverty,” Bayes said. “We have seen other countries make better improvements than we have.”

One issue Bayes has set her sights on is the Child Benefit, a tax-free monthly payment made to eligible families with children under 18.

 “It’s lifted an amazing number of people out of poverty, regular children, which is great,” she said.

But she’s concerned about the bureaucratic barriers that are preventing some of Canada’s poorest kids from getting the benefit.

“Anything we can do to see those barriers removed that are keeping children from getting those benefits, that is terrific,” she said.

To that end, the Elizabeth Fry Society spearheaded a petition calling on the federal government to take action to remove some of those barriers.

“I really wanted to be able to articulate that – about what it was that is roadblocking children getting the benefits that will really help them deal with the day-to-day deep deprivation that they are living in when you are living in deep poverty,” Bayes said.

According to Bayes, two-thirds of the people the Elizabeth Fry Society works with are living on less than $5,000 a year if they’re single and $10,000 a year if it’s a mom and child.

“That’s bone-grinding, extraordinary poverty,” she said. “The Child Benefit, which is like $550 a month, could make a huge difference in that.”

Bayes is pleased the federal government has acknowledged it needs to make changes so families are able to get the Child Benefit.

“The issue is we have extraordinarily poor people,” she said. “We have an intent to help people. We recognize that poverty has profound impacts on children, their ability to learn, their ability to be able to participate in school, their health. So, for me, getting those roadblocks out of the way that don’t have to be there, that’s one of the best things that we can do.”

EFry has also spearheaded other initiatives to help fight poverty and its effects.

To help families fund post-secondary education, EFry has launched a new Future Bright program, which helps families to open free registered educational savings plans.

The organization is also excited that construction is now underway on a modular housing project in Queensborough that will provide long-term supportive housing for 44 women.

Bayes is pleased the provincial and federal governments both have been “increasingly willing” to look at what it takes to make changes to address poverty.

“I think we all think we know who homeless people are, but if you walk through our homeless shelters, one of the things people comment on the most is that they are looking at people who are using laptops, are sitting there doing their knitting, and in no way look different than them – except they were working in a very low-wage job or are working part-time,” she said.